Lonni Alameda shares emotional feelings on Kathryn Sandercock

The Florida State Seminoles are on their way to the Women’s College World Series championship. Florida State will face off against this softball power that is Oklahoma, but before setting their sights on the grand prize, the Seminoles and their head coach Lonni Alameda did a brief recap of their journey leading up to this point following their victory over Tennessee. During Alameda’s time talking with the press, she couldn’t help but get emotional when talking about her ace pitcher Kathryn Sandercock.

“I think with Kat in the beginning of the year we sat down and really tried to map out innings, try to figure out how can we get Kat to be the best version of herself at this time,” said Alameda. “When I presented that to her, it meant a lot less starts, a lot less innings, a lot less comfortable situations. 

“For her to be the teammate that she is, to be like, Okay, I’ll do it, then start doing it. She struggled with it. She really prides herself on being really good in moments. She’s worked really hard to be the leader of the team. I’m asking her to be a leader in a different way.”

Sandercock has been an absolute problem for opposing offenses. In their Super Regional round matchup against South Carolina, the Seminoles ace pitcher threw a perfect game. And in their closeout game against Tennessee, Sandercock had another solid outing.

“The moment to be like I’m so proud of you, to come into a ballgame, it is hard to come in a ballgame and close it out. You have to rely on your abilities and experiences. She’s been doing it more and more. She’s starting to get comfortable with it. Everything we thought would be is showing up. It’s really cool. 

“Really proud of her to understand that piece on the strategic side. I would say on the growth side, she was such a young kid coming in, could sit and read a book for three days, not see anyone.”

Against the Volunteers, Sandercock would start the game for the Seminoles, pitching in three of the seven innings. In her three innings of work, she would face 11 batters striking out four of them, allowing one hit with 0 earned runs and no walks.

“Now she’s taking control of a team. She has that sass walking off the field, super confident in who she is. You get proud of her as a person, too. She’s able to lead these younger pitchers in those moments. She’s the MVP of our team awards. You can see why. She brings everybody together. The embrace, I love her to death, so proud of her. We would not be here without her.” 

Florida State and Sandercock’s work is not done yet. Next up, they will have to face the most dominating team in softball this year, Oklahoma. The Sooners enter into this year’s Women’s College World Series finals with a jaw-dropping 55-1 record. And in the postseason, Oklahoma has still yet to lose a game.

The Women’s College World Series final’s game one is set for Wednesday night, June 7. ESPN will have all the live action and coverage of the game, which is scheduled for a 7 p.m. CDT.